Festive garment with fasteners

ABSTRACT

A festive garment for wearing at celebrations including a garment for covering the upper body of the wearer, the garment having a front side and a back side, the garment having a plurality of fasteners on the front side and the back side of the garment adapted to receive paper money therein, the fasteners being aligned on the front side and the back side of the garment in vertical columns and horizontal rows.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to garments for covering the upper body ofthe wearer. More particularly, the invention relates to garmentscovering the upper body of the wearer having fasteners thereon forattaching various items.

In some cultures, and in particular in the southern part of Louisiana,it is comn at wedding parties or receptions held after the wedding forthe bride and the groom to participate in a custom or ritual referred toas the “money dance”. In the money dance, music is played and both thebride and the groom dance individually with various guests at thereception. Each guest requesting a dance with the bride or the groomattaches paper money or currency to the dress of the bride or the coatof the groom as a wedding gift to the bride or groom in exchange for thedance.

The paper money or currency is commonly attached to the garment of thebride or groom utilizing a common straight pin well known in the artcomprising a short piece of wire having a head on one end and a point onthe other end. The paper money is placed against the garment of thebride or groom and the point of the straight pin is forced first throughthe paper money, then through the garment, and again through the papermoney a second time to secure the paper money to the garment. The danceof the guest with the bride or groom commonly commences immediatelyafter the guest attaches paper money to the garment of the bride orgroom and continues for a short period of time.

Difficulty in attaching paper money to the garment of the bride or groomwith straight pins is common. Aligning a straight pin with the papermoney and garment and inserting the pin through both to attach the papermoney to the garment requires that the guest attaching the paper moneypossess some skill and dexterity. Lighting in the area in which thewedding party or reception is held may be subdued and not ideal forutilizing a straight pin for attachment of paper money to a garment, andthe ability of some guests may be impaired by the consumption ofalcoholic beverages at the reception.

A money dance may also be performed for an individual being hosted at aparty in their honor such as a birthday party or the like. Guests at theparty requesting a dance with the individual for whom the party isprovided attach paper money to the garment of the individual prior tobeginning the dance.

It is therefore desirable to overcome the difficulties encountered withattaching paper money to the garment of a bride or groom with straightpins.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Garments having fasteners connected thereto are known in the art.Exemplary of the prior art are the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat.Nos. 4,087,864; 4,369,526; 6,209,134 and U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication US 2003/0159194 A1.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a festivegarment for wearing at celebrations including a garment for covering theupper body of the wearer, the garment having a front side and a backside, the garment having a plurality of fasteners on the front side andthe back side of the garment adapted to receive paper money therein, thefasteners being aligned on the front side and the back side of thegarment in vertical columns and horizontal rows. Preferably the garmentis a vest which may be worn over other clothing or undergarments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front plan view of the festive garment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear plan view of garment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the garment shown in FIG. 1 being worn by amale;

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the garment shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a fastener on the garment shown in FIGS.1-3; and

FIG. 6 is a front plan view of an alternate embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings, the garment of the invention is generallyindicated by the numeral 10. Garment 10 is manufactured from any garmentmaterial known in the art such as cotton fabric, fabrics made fromsynthetic materials, and the like. Garment 10 has a bodice portiongenerally indicated by the numeral 12 and two sleeves 14-14.

The bodice portion 12 is one piece and is open at the top to receive thehead and neck of the wearer and at the bottom to receive the midriff ortorso of the wearer. Preferably, the bodice portion 12 has a V-neck 16,although other neck styles such as crew neck could be utilized.

Garment 10 has two adjacent adjoining front sides 20 a and 20 bconnected together by a zipper 18. If desired, buttons, hooks and eyes,Velcro® strips, or other conventional devices may be use for connectingside 20 a to side 20 b. Front sides 20 a and 20 b extend downward to thewaist of the wearer or further if desired.

Garment 10 has a back side 22 integrally connected to and integrallyformed with the two front sides 20 a and 20 b. Back side 22 extendsdownward to the waist of the wearer or further if desired.

A plurality of fasteners 24 are connected to the front sides 20 a and 20b and to the back side 22 of garment 10. Preferably, fasteners 24 arealigned in horizontal rows on the front sides 20 a and 20 b and backside 22 of garment perpendicularly to the vertical axis of garment 10.Preferably, fasteners 24 are also aligned in vertical rows parallel tothe vertical axis of garment 10.

A preferred fastener 24 is shown in detail in FIG. 5. Fastener 24 iswell known in the art and is known in the art as an alligator clip.Fastener 24 has an elongated bottom jaw 24 a pivotally connected by pin24 b to top jaw 24 c and biased toward top jaw 24 c by a spring (notshown) or the like as is well known in the art. Both bottom jaw 24 a andtop jaw 24 c have teeth 26 thereon for gripping an object placed betweenbottom jaw 24 a and top jaw 24 c. Top jaw 24 c has an enlarged tabportion 24 d for depressing with the finger or thumb of the wearer toopen top jaw 24 c and bottom jaw 24 a to insert paper money 28 betweenbottom jaw 24 a and top jaw 24 c. If desired, other fasteners known inthe art may be attached to garment 10 to secure objects such as papermoney 28 to garment 10.

Fastener 24 is preferably connected to garment 10 by thread 30 as shownin FIG. 5. Fastener 24 has a circular opening 25 at the end of bottomjaw 24 a for receipt of thread 30. Thread 30 is sewn into garment 10 tosecure fastener 24 to garment 10.

In FIG. 6 is shown an alternate embodiment of the invention wherein 15fastener 24 is connected to garment 10 by rivet 32 which is received incircular opening 25 at the end of bottom jaw 24 a. Rivet 32 extendsthrough garment 10 to secure fastener 24 to garment 10.

If desired, the bottom jaw 24 a of fastener 24 may be secured to garment10 by glue or cement.

Adjacent fasteners 24 are preferably spaced apart a distance equal tothe width of paper money 28. However, any desired spacing of fasteners24 may be utilized if desired.

Although the preferred embodiments of the invention have been describedin detail above, it should be understood that the invention is in nosense limited thereby, and its scope is to be determined by that of thefollowing claims:

1. A festive garment for wearing at celebrations including a garment forcovering the upper body of the wearer, said garment comprising: (a) afront side and a back side; and (b) a plurality of fasteners on saidfront side and said back side of said garment adapted to receive papermoney therein, wherein said fasteners are aligned on the front side andthe back side of said garment in vertical columns and horizontal rows.2. The garment of claim 1 wherein said fastener is an alligator clip.